ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 16, 1996 TAG: 9611190131
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: BRIEFLY PUT
* GOOD NEWS from the war on cancer: For the first time in 60 years, cancer deaths in America are declining. The main reason, say researchers, is reduced use of tobacco. In the late 1960s, 40 percent of Americans smoked. Today, 25 percent do.
Unfortunately, tobacco firms' marketing efforts that target women (not to mention kids) seem to be paying off. For the tobacco companies, that is.
Between 1990 and 1995, lung cancer mortality declined 6.7 percent for men, but rose 6.4 percent in women, who as a group are less likely to have quit smoking. Women may have come a long way, baby, but they have a way still to go.
* EVERY election expands the political lexicon, it seems. The recent presidential campaign contributed ``soccer moms.'' Count on next month's special election for the Virginia Senate to add ``FOV.''
That stands for Friend of Virgil, as it appears virtually everyone in the 20th senatorial district is or aspires to be.
Del. Allen Dudley, a Rocky Mount Republican, declared himself an ``FOV'' Monday when he entered the race for the state Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Virgil Goode, who is on his way to Congress. Dudley says he's been a friend of Goode's since childhood.
Dudley will be opposed by Del. Roscoe Reynolds of Martinsville - also an FOV, and a Democrat, though the latter doesn't necessarily make him more FOV than Dudley.
And since another special election will have to be held to fill the House seat of either Dudley or Reynolds, depending on the outcome of the Senate contest, it's a fairly safe bet that the candidates in that race will also be FOVs. Or claim to be. What remains to be seen is how many FOVs the conservative populist makes in Congress.
LENGTH: Short : 41 linesby CNB